


Beneath the Blossoms

by oj_lod



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Canon-typical swearing, Feelings, Fluff, Humor, Hurley is a good person who cares a lot about her friends, I mean come on, Multi, Self-Indulgent, a bit of a character study on taako, but it also features him getting hit in the face with a bird, dryad's are typically mischievous and these disaster gays are no exception, honestly it's less than canon, i just wanted sloane and kravitz to hang out, no matter how hard i try i always write sloane as a dork, or rather, so a dork she is, so it's not that introspective, taako is bad at feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 05:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15042137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oj_lod/pseuds/oj_lod
Summary: Hurley gasps, spinning around to look at Sloane.“Sloane,” she begins,” Taako has a boy with him!”“No shit,” she whispers, but she’s smiling all the same. After a moment she elbows Hurley. “So, we get to tease him about this, right?” Hurley grins wickedly.“You know it.”Taako takes Kravitz to a very special place, and regrets it immediately. Hurley thinks about her friend and who he's become. Kravitz and Sloane have a raven-off.





	Beneath the Blossoms

**Author's Note:**

> Taz beat me up behind Denny's at 2 am but that's okay because I loved listening to it. It's inspired me to write a lot actually, so there's probably more coming for this amazing fandom. In the meantime, just know that the working title for this was "Hurley and Sloane bully Taako".

It’s nearing dusk, and the town of Goldcliff is beginning to slow its pace to a sleepy buzz as people leave work to go out or be with their loved ones. In the center of the city lies a monument, a fountain with a plaque. In the center of the fountain stretches a tree, and in that tree, Hurley wakes to the sound of a familiar voice. She stirs for a moment, trying to place it. Luckily, the particular cadence of this voice is easily recognizable, and no sooner has she placed it then she finds her face breaking into a grin.

“Babe!” She elbows Sloane, who groans and opens one eye. “Taako is here!”

“What?” Sloane murmurs.

“Taako? Y’know? From TV? And also our friend and the guy who helped save the world.” She amends. Sloane wakes up properly enough to roll her eyes.

“Yeah, I know who Taako is, why’s he here?”

“Just visiting, I guess?” Hurley shrugs, trying not to seem _too_ elated. She likes visitors of all kinds: young couples who come to meet up in secret, families with small children who can always spot them faster than the adults, even the battle wagon competitors who come to shit-talk, fully aware that the two dryads will be taking them down later in the day or week. But there are a few visitors who make her day even brighter. Mavis, Merle’s daughter who they helped during the day of Story and Song, comes to visit pretty often, sometimes bringing along her brother or father. Magnus visits from time to time and babbles on to them in his typical genuine manner, regardless of whether or not they come out to chat with him. And then, there’s Taako, who never explains why he’s there, but comes all the same. The two dryads exchange a look and lean towards the sound as the voice comes closer.

“—wanted to bring you here,” Taako is saying, his typical disinterested tone a poor disguise for some genuine emotion. “Cause like, a lot of shit has happened with this tree and the end of the world and stuff, but also because it’s a nice tree and Hurley and Sloane really loved each other,” Hurley smiles at her girlfriend. “And I lo-care about you, y’know?” He sounds vulnerable, like he’s expecting to get laughed at.

“I care about you too, Taako, you know that.” Hurley gasps, spinning around to look at Sloane.

“Sloane,” she begins,” Taako has a boy with him!”

“No shit,” she whispers, but she’s smiling all the same. After a moment she elbows Hurley. “So, we get to tease him about this, right?” Hurley grins wickedly.

“You know it.” She shifts her form slightly, enough to poke her head out among the blossoms of the tree, but enough to remain hidden. Taako might never speak to her again, but the opportunity is just too good to pass up. She concentrates, and as she does one of the branches drops a shower of petals on the heads of the two figures below. A lot of them get caught on the brim of Taako’s hat, turning it vivid pink.

“Istus, what--”

“Taaaaako brought a booooy!” She sings, smirking as both men jump. Sloane appears next to her, hanging by her ankles off of a branch.

“Ooh, he’s cute!” Taako looks up, seeing them and groaning dramatically.

“Yeah, our boy’s made a good choice!” She flicks a few more petals down at them. “Tall dark and handsome indeed.”

“Ohhhhhh myyyyy godddd.” Taako is close to shrieking now. He pulls his hat down over his ears, probably in an attempt to hide the fact that the tips of them have turned bright red. “Seriously you guys? I can’t have one fucking date under a nice, normal cherry tree? Most shrubbery doesn’t have an _opinion_!” He hisses. The two dryads are now giggling so hard that Sloane nearly falls out of the tree, much to his chargain. The man he’s with looks an impressive combination of startled beyond recognition and absolutely used to this shit by now. Hurley composes herself and manages a more graceful exit than Sloane, who eventually does flop out of the tree wheezing, though a branch quickly catches her. She stands up and immediately engulfs Taako in a hug. He mutters spitefully about stupid trees and borrowing Railsplitter, but accepts it all the same. Sloane follows her out of the tree. She hesitates for a long moment before nodding and smiling at Taako warmly, moving to sit at the base of the trunk. Hurley sighs a little. They’ve had long conversations about the Gaia sash and the general Sloanes-fault-to-not-Sloanes-fault ratio, but now isn’t the time to push it. Hurley moves to shake hands with Taako’s mystery man, but as soon as she gets within range the buds on her arm shrivel and wilt. She pulls back quickly and they resume blooming.

“Woah!” The man seems embarrassed. He’s a nice looking guy, not that she’d expect anything less for Taako, and when he speaks he sounds almost painfully genuine in contrast to his date’s generally sarcastic approach.

“I’m sorry, I—“

“It’s all good!” She looks him up and down once trying to discern what happened. It only takes her a few seconds; the glowing eyes sort of give it away. “Ah, yeah Pan’s life magic isn’t a big fan of the undead, but I don’t care.” Taako puts his arm around the man.

“It’s true. First time we met? Merle’s arm absolutely just fell off.” 

“That is not what happened, and that also wasn’t because he touched me.” Hurley gets the sense that whatever scenario actually happened has been discussed many times before.

“So are you gonna introduce us to your man, or?” Sloane pipes up from her station at the base of the tree. Taako, seemingly recovered from his embarrassment, shrugs.

“Sure thing, kemosabe.” He jutts a thumb out towards his date. “This is m’boy Kravitz. He’s the Grim Reaper so that’s fun.” He points at Hurley and Sloane. “Krav, these two shrubs are Hurley and Sloane, they’re battlewagon racers. We got Merle’s creepy sash from them.” Kravitz nods.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Hurley smiles.

“Uh, same here!” She goes back through the introduction in her head, one detail in particular sticking out. “The...Grim Reaper?” She has kinda cheated death a little, she realizes, and she’s not thrilled about the idea of Kravitz going all assassin on her.

“I’m an emissary for the Raven Queen,” he explains. “Dryads are Pan’s jurisdiction, so don’t worry about that--” he begins. He’s interrupted by Sloane, who jumps to her feet and runs over.

“Holy shit, you work for the Raven Queen? That’s awesome dude!” her eye’s are lit up in a way that’s usually reserved for battlewagon racing and Hurley. Kravitz tilts his head, thrown slightly off.

“Um, yes, it’s a very worthy job?” Taako laughs. “Nah, Ghost Rider, you don’t understand, Sloane lives for this stuff. When I met her she was going by ‘The Raven’ and lemme tell you, she was _committed_ to the aesthetic.”

“I still am, by the way.” Sloane contributes. “I’m a tree now, birds dig me.”

“Oh?” And just like that Sloane and Kravitz are off on a conversation about ravens, which seems to be quickly falling towards Sloane’s competitive spirit and determination to prove her love of birds. Hurley smiles fondly at her girlfriend, smirking when she glances over and sees Taako doing the same in Kravitz’s direction.

“So, a reaper, huh?” Taako gives her finger guns.

“Hell yeah.” They walk back to wear Sloane was previously hunched, sitting down next to each other for a moment of catching up. Taako leans back against the tree, folding his arms under his head. “It’s a pretty sweet deal.” He smiles to himself, and Hurley is struck with the realization that this is not the same elf who first came to Goldcliff. When she met Taako, an era that seems to be a lifetime ago, he was cold and sarcastic and _scared_. She’d never met someone so surrounded by people and yet so alone. She thinks about him standing across from her in his mongoose mask, fists clenched and shoulders trembling as he unwittingly bared his entire soul to a virtual stranger, and tries to reconcile that image with the elf in front of her, and that with the person she learned about from the Story and the Song. Taako looks _content_ , she realizes, not necessarily happy all the time, and not necessarily even okay, but he’s stopped running and pushing and holding everyone away. That’s a good thing, because he has so many people who love him. He always has. It’s hard _not_ to love Taako. He’s charming and talented and funny, and it’s no wonder Kravitz fell for him. The man in question shoots a big grin back in Taako’s direction, and Taako rolls his eyes back. Hurley realizes something with a start.

“You’re letting yourself be loved.” He blinks at her.

“Er, what?” She gestures.

“Kravitz, Lup, Magnus, Merle.” She gives him a small smile. “Me and Sloane, too.”

“Sloane and me, Hurley.” She glares at him for the obvious deflect and he holds his hands up in defence. “I can’t help it, I’m a teacher!” He sighs, but not in an upset manner. “I know. And I am, I guess.” He shrugs, and shakes his head. “But listen, Hurley, my dude, cha’boy has had far too many genuine moments with you and I am not about that.” He waves his hand in dismissal and deliberately looks in the opposite direction. She laughs and opens her mouth to say something, to tease him, or maybe just start crying, when there’s a loud cry and something comes barreling at them. Unfortunately for Taako, the creatures flight path is delayed by his face, and he hits the back of the tree as the thing smacks right into him. Taako, predictably, does not take this well.

“AHHHHHgetitoffgetitoffAHHH!” he shrieks at an inhuman decibel, attempting to beat back whatever it is with his umbrella. Hurley moves to help him, but is forced to hit the ground to avoid the same fate as another flies straight at her. She scrambles up to her elbows to discern their situation, and comes face to face with a curious-looking bird with shiny black feathers.

“Oh, um, heads up!” Sloane takes stock of the situation and calls out belatedly. She has her arms raised, and half a dozen birds are perched on them, but she has the decency to look sheepish about it. Kravitz has his scythe outstretched and a raven resting on a finger, joining Sloane in the whole ‘morbid Snow White’ thing. His face is skeletal but still conveys unholy (and probably justifiable) fear as Taako scrambles to his feet and marches towards them.

“Kravitz, what the fuck?”

“Sorry, love!” He’s smiling a little bit but trying valiantly to hide it. The image of Taako, savior of the entire world, taking a raven to the face and losing his shit is admittedly a pretty funny one. Hurley marches over to her girlfriend and crosses her arms.

“Did you and Kravitz have a bird summoning contest?” Sloane is also poorly attempting to disguise her laughter.

“Hey, we made a bet! When you put it like that it sounds juvenile!” She looks around at the dozens, maybe even hundreds of birds now surrounding them. “It’s chill though, they can just hang out in the tree.” Hurley crosses her arms.

“I’m not rooming with 50 ravens, Sloane, I’ve already got you.” She’s saved from Sloane’s inevitable protest by Taako’s dramatics, which really do have their uses.

“Well, now that we’ve established that I can’t take my boyfriend anywhere,” Kravitz makes a noise of mock-hurt. “We have a reservation to get to. We’ll see you guys at the races, yeah?”

“Are you guys going to race?” Hurley asks.

“Nah, I realized that we’ve never actually watched them. And there’s less murder now so it’s not as fun to race. But, we wouldn’t miss seeing you guys destroy people for the world.” Hurley, as per her usual policy dealing with the boys, ignores Taako’s murder comments in favor of giving him another hug. Sloane gives him a weird shoulder pat thing, and Hurley completes the awkward trifecta by giving Kraviz a huge thumbs up in lieu of physical contact. He blinks for a moment and then hesitantly returns it. Good enough! They head off, Taako whining the entire way,

“Seriously Krav? My hair got all kinds of messed up from your _pets_ trying to murder me.”

“I’m sorry, can’t you magic it back?”

“Well yes but that’s not the point--” Their voices fade as the step back through some kind of portal, hand-in-hand. Hurley smiles, feeling lighter than she has in a long time.

“Well, that was fun,” Sloane comments. “Now, how about we just--”

“Babe, we’re not keeping all those birds in our tree.”

“Come on!”


End file.
